Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. May Your gracious Spirit lead me on level ground. - Psalm 143:10
I don’t know how many times, I’ve heard it, and I’m sure I’ve said it just as many; that “God is in control.” But I wonder if our hearts really understand what that means? I sometimes even wonder if we believe that it’s true?
Everyday life has its share of routines and schedules, we get up, do what we need to do for the day (whether that be school, work, appointments, etc.) then we perhaps spend some time with family, and go to bed. Each and every day, like clockwork, like cogs in a wheel, we do exactly what needs to be done. Perhaps we’ve worked up to incorporate the spiritual disciplines of prayer or Bible study into our daily routine, but it’s now and still just part of a daily routine. When does life change? When does the soul awaken to something better?
I believe we find something better when we begin to seek it out. Jesus tells his disciples early in his ministry that if you want something you have to ask, if you want to find something you must seek, and if you want to have a door opened you must knock (Matthew 7:7-12).
Perhaps, when we added disciplines of a spiritual nature to our daily routine it was for the purpose of seeking something better; peace, enlightenment, patience, courage, etc. However, over time our routines again become just routine, if don’t keep our hearts and minds open to the leading of God. We need, from time-to-time, to acknowledge anew the One whom we want to lead us. I love the words of the psalmist above: teach me to do Your will…May Your gracious Spirit lead… The psalmists is reminding us of who and for whom our life has purpose. The Psalmist reminds us to acknowledge God in and with the depths of our soul, that we might find, again, God’s ways above our own. It’s hard to know that God is in control, when we only acknowledge God as routine, and have forgotten that it is toward God that we are moving.
Whatever our current routines, I pray that we will seek God, seek the presence of God’s Holy Spirit, and that God will lead us on level ground to do God’s will, serveing to build God’s kingdom, here and now.
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Sam